Household Chores

Any family is in charge of the welfare, comfort, health, success in work and good relations of every member in the family.

There are stereotypical responsibilities of the husband, the wife and the children. They say that the wife's responsibilities are, basically, to do everything. The typical role of husband is that he goes out to work and earns money for the family. Maybe, at the weekend he cleans his car and does more technical things around the house. Lots of people in Britain are really into DIY, that's do-it-yourself, and they try to make furniture, put their own bathroom appliances, put tiles on the bathroom walls themselves, etc.

In many countries now it's more accepted that a woman can have a family and a career, whereas before it was seen as some­thing shocking, and men were outraged that their children would be left with strangers, and thought that it was the wife's duty to bring them up. I think that's all changed now. I think responsibility for all of the important aspects of life should be shared by both of the parents, especially bringing up the children. I think that the care and early education of children shouldn't only fall into the hands of the mother, but that the father should also take an active part.

I think that children should be given as much responsibility as they'd like to take on from as early as possible. I don't think that they should be too smothered by parents and have everything done for them if they can do things for themselves. It's very good for a child to learn to be able to take care of himself and his things. Of course, the more things he can do, the more versatile person he can become.

As for me, I have always been conscious that the interests of my family ought to be more important than my own wishes and desires, such as buying expensive new things or hanging around with some pals. I don't mind this because I like household chores. In our family I do a lot of things, because my parents usually work. I do most of the washing up, tidy my room and make my bed. I often go shopping. Cleaning the room is probably the best one, and the worst I think is cleaning the bath, because it kills your back. My father and I try to help my mother to do the chores. Everyone in the family is responsible for cleaning and repairing things when they have free time. In order to have a loving family every person ought to do the chores. That is the way I see it.

If I were married, I'd like to create a situation where all of these tasks would be shared fairly equally between me and my husband. Of course, if I like doing some things more and my husband would like other things more, this would be OK. I don't like the situation that my husband goes out to work every day, and I would be just stuck inside the house looking after children, keeping the clothes clean and cooking. This seems very unequal to me.

1. What are your household chores? 2. Are they difficult? 3. What are your parents' household chores? 4. Who will fulfil household chores in your future family? 5. What is an ideal situation concerning household chores in the family? 6. Who shares responsibility in your family? Why?